A Place Called Freedom (1995)

There was not much left of the four hundred pounds when Jay arrived back at the plantation in his new equipage. He had lost at cards, he had bought four slave girls, and he had failed to beat down Mr. Smythe’s price for the carriage and horses.

However, he had cleared all his debts. He would simply get credit from local merchants as he had before. His first tobacco crop would be ready for sale soon after Christmas, and he would pay his bills from the proceeds.

He was apprehensive of what Lizzie might say about the carriage, but to his relief she hardly mentioned it. She obviously had something else on her mind that she was bursting to tell him.

As always, she was most attractive when animated: her dark eyes flashed and her skin glowed pink. However, he no longer felt a surge of desire every time he saw her. Since she had become pregnant he had felt diffident. He imagined it was bad for the baby if the mother had sexual intercourse during pregnancy. But that was not his real reason. Lizzie’s being a mother somehow put him off. He did not like the thought of mothers having sexual lusts. Anyway, it was rapidly becoming impracticable: the bulge she carried in front of her was getting too big.

As soon as he had kissed her she said: “Bill Sowerby has left.”

“Really?” Jay was surprised. The man had gone without his wages. “Good thing we’ve got Lennox to take over.”

“I think Lennox drove him away. Apparently Sowerby had lost a lot of money to him at cards.”

That made sense. “Lennox is a good card player.”

“Lennox wants to be overseer here.”

They were standing on the front portico, and at that moment Lennox came around the side of the house. With his usual lack of grace he did not welcome Jay back. Instead he said: “There’s a consignment of salt cod in barrels just arrived.”

“I ordered it,” Lizzie said. “It’s for the field hands.”

Jay was annoyed. “Why do you want to feed them fish?”

“Colonel Thumson says they work better. He gives his slaves salt fish every day and meat once a week.”

“Colonel Thumson is richer than I am. Send the stuff back, Lennox.”

“They’re going to have to work hard this winter, Jay,” Lizzie protested. “We have to clear all the woodland in Pond Copse ready for planting with tobacco next spring.”

Lennox said quickly: “That isn’t necessary. There’s plenty of life left in the fields, with good manuring.”

“You can’t manure forever,” Lizzie rejoined. “Colonel Thumson clears land every winter.”

Jay realized this was an argument the two of them had been through before.

Lennox said: “We don’t have enough hands. Even with the men from the Rosebud, we can only just manage to plant the fields we have. Colonel Thumson has more slaves than us.”

“That’s because he makes more money—due to better methods,” Lizzie said triumphantly.

Lennox sneered: “Women just don’t understand these things.”

Lizzie snapped: “Leave us, please, Mr. Lennox—immediately.”

Lennox looked angry but he went away.

“You must get rid of him, Jay,” she said.

“I don’t see why—”

“It’s not just that he’s brutal. Frightening people is the only thing he’s good at. He can’t understand farming and he doesn’t know anything about tobacco—and the worst of it is he’s not interested in learning.”

“He knows how to get the hands working hard.”

“There’s no point in driving them hard if they’re doing the wrong work!”

“You’ve suddenly become an expert on tobacco.”

“Jay, I grew up on a big estate and I saw it go bankrupt—not through the laziness of peasants, but because my father died and my mother couldn’t cope with managing land. Now I see you making all the familiar errors—staying away too long, mistaking harshness for discipline, letting someone else make strategic decisions. You wouldn’t run a regiment this way!”

“You don’t know anything about running a regiment.”

“And you don’t know anything about running a farm!”

Jay was getting angry but he held it in. “So what are you asking me to do?”

“Dismiss Lennox.”

“But who would take over?”

“We could do it together.”

“I don’t want to be a farmer!”

“Then let me do it.”

Jay nodded. “I thought as much.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“All this is just so that you can be in charge, isn’t it?”

He was afraid she would explode, but instead she went quiet. “Is that what you really think?”

“As a matter of fact, it is.”

“I’m trying to save you. You’re headed for disaster, I’m fighting to prevent it, and you think I just want to order people around. If that’s what you think of me, why the devil did you marry me?”

He did not like her to use strong language: it was too masculine. “In those days you used to be pretty,” he said.

Her eyes flashed fire, but she did not speak. Instead she turned around and walked into the house.

Jay breathed a sigh of relief. It was not often he got the better of her.

After a moment he followed her in. He was surprised to see McAsh in the hall, dressed in a waistcoat and indoor shoes, putting a new pane of glass in a window. What the devil was he doing in the house?